I was having a thought recently: there’s a thing in military science called a Pyrrhic Victory, which is a victory so costly, its not worth the expense.
It got me wondering, is there a name for the inverse of this? A victory, so complete and one-sided, that it goes to the victors head. Leading to a decadent decline over decades, until such a point that the victor has defeated themselves.

It’s clear to me that if there is such a concept, the scenario in which we live would be an example. The USA defeated the USSR 35 years ago without firing a single shot. A victory so cheap for the west – it blew away expectations of the politicians and military analysts of the time.
Then followed by another incredible victory over Iraq in the Gulf War in 1991 – its safe to say the USA was riding high on victory for almost 0 sacrifice.

35 years later, it seems without our socialist boogieman, we’re defeating ourselves – and bringing out our worst characteristics. Wages have stagnated, with minimum wage for servers not being increased since 1992 (huh, what happened in 1991 again?)
Wall Street and private equity is running amok. After destroying the global economy in 2008 and receiving no punishment, it seems they’ve been emboldened.
Gambling is legalized and sports betting is being pushed on the youth like its a new fad. The average age of a first-time home -buyer continues to climb up and up and up. I can go on and on.

With this in mind, I did some digging. Thus coming across the concept of The Sallustian Curse. Named for the Roman historian “Sallust”. (In fact, Sallust is the oldest Latin-language Roman historian we have on record.)
Basically, The Roman historian Sallust posited that the total destruction of Rome’s existential rival, Carthage, was the worst thing to ever happen to Rome.

He goes on to argue that without an external threat to force internal cohesion, discipline, and shared sacrifice, the Roman republic rapidly descended into hyper-partisanship, political corruption, decadence, and eventual civil war.

It seems that the USA is experiencing its own Sallustian Curse. Bloodlessly defeating communism may have seemed the perfect victory for capitalism, but it instead seems to have accelerated the worst tendencies of capitalism.
In resting on our laurels in the 1990s and acting as if it was the end of history – we’ve created a society with little meaning and no stakes, beyond making a lot of money and looking beautiful.
Without the ‘metus hostilis‘ (i.e., fear of the enemy) towards communism, the capital class seems less keen to give the working class any piece of the pie each year that goes by.
To steal a quote from Julius Evola in Ride the Tiger: “It is a commonplace that all the higher virtues attenuate and atrophy under easy conditions, when man is not forced to prove himself in some way“
It seems that when the USA doesn’t have to prove itself, we get greedy, selfish, and backwards.

I only hope we find our way out of this Sallustian Curse before its too late.